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Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

blogs.office.com

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Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#241

Post by robomartin »

Encosia wrote: post #227
robomartin wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here are my notes on that (I'm running Vista 64 Ultimate): RUNNING MULTIPLE INSTANCES OF OUTLOOK Download and install "ExtraOutlook.exe" from: http://www.hammerofgod.com/download/ExtraOutlook.zip Copy the executable to the folder where outlook lives. In the current case that means: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\ Create a profile for each separate instance of Outlook we want to run: To create and ma…

Thanks for posting your notes. I'm running into a "Function not found in Import Table" error when I try that with Outlook 2010. Have you ever run into that?

No, I've never seen that. I'm running Office 2007.

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#242

Post by darklajid »

geuis wrote: post #229
darklajid wrote: post #226

HN: Is this a feature or a bug? My live id is a Gmail address. Went to Outlook.com, wanted to register but the form said 'login if you have a live id'. Did that, ended up on a very ugly hotmail-kind-of site. Hrmpf. Went back to Outlook.com, but logged in now: The web interface lets me compose and send mails as me@gmail?

Confirmed. My Live account that I use for xbox live is my gmail account. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to login to outlook.com with my gmail address. However I am concerned about the ability to send email from outlook.com that is sent as the name of another provider.

In general that'd be fine. The sender address can be easily spoofed anyway - smtp works that way.

The thing is, this seems to be broken by design in my world. Google should (have to check that again) publish a record that lists 'official' mail servers for GMail.

This whole setup could work just fine, even if it's a bit weird. But right now I suppose you look like a crappy imposter to any receiver AND you can never receive emails (they .. would end up in your GMail inbox of course).

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#243

Post by run4yourlives »

briandear wrote: post #144
run4yourlives wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Outlook, like all of office, is the default choice of pretty much anyone in a non-tech office setting. These programs aren't just "chosen", they are expected. The same way having a desk is expected.

Which is terrible. That's like everyone expecting their food to be bland and overcooked. It's almost Soviet in its depressingness.

No, it's like expecting their chair to have four legs and support their weight.

People that use software to do other things often aren't interested in how wonderful the software is, provided it stays out of their way and allows them to get stuff done in a way that they expect.

The marketplace for a beautiful desk is much smaller than the market for a functional, yet ugly, desk, especially if that nice desk can't fit through the door of my office without me removing the frame, etc.

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#244

Post by mythz »

Starting to see a trend with Metro apps where they're sacrificing UX for candy.

The UX for this is a nightmare:

- It's not clear that the Subject is editable (doesn't look like it's in a text box nor does the label look like a placeholder).

- Clicking on BCC opens a CC box with a drop-down that covers the BCC field.

- The Send button looks like a main navigation menu, where I'd expect clicking on it would navigate away from the page (and not send the email)

- The Rich text buttons look part of the content, a light shade of grey wouldn't add any pixels but would provide separation between function and content

Back to gmail....

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#245

Post by waterlesscloud »

blaines wrote: post #92
waterlesscloud wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see at least two ads on my gmail homepage at all times. One line above the inbox, one below. When I'm in an email, there will be one to several contextual ads (sometimes hilariously mistargeted) on the right. Do you not see these?

No, I don't see any! I just checked my gmail, and two apps accounts. Add a screenshot? I would, but there's nothing to see here!

Do you have paid or non-profit apps accounts that are tied to the gmail? I don't see ads on my non-profit apps/gmail

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#246

Post by ChuckMcM »

MattRogish wrote: post #228
ChuckMcM wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except this only recently was made to work again (a year?) and it doesn't work across all Google properties. I agree that the new effort from Microsoft had no chance against the old gmail, against the current gmail the jury is still out :-). What I find interesting is that its even a product. I know that sounds weird but bear with me for a moment. Mail (the service) has changed hardly at all for a decade. You send an…

I think gmail is as close to a "mail as a service" as you can get. You can get your own domain pretty easily, and yes Google charges you for it. You can hook up plenty of 3rd party native clients to it - if you want, you never have to use the web interface at all (9x% of my gmail usage is from Mac and iOS native clients).

True, and I pay for it for blekko.com, but there was no amount of money I could give them that would let me have the old gmail interface back. That was sad for me.

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#247

Post by paulsilver »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #162
2arrs2ells wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gmail allows you to sign in to multiple accounts at the same time (in different tabs). I have two pinned tabs always open in Chrome - one for personal, one for business emails. Works incredibly well for me.

Except this only recently was made to work again (a year?) and it doesn't work across all Google properties. I agree that the new effort from Microsoft had no chance against the old gmail, against the current gmail the jury is still out :-). What I find interesting is that its even a product. I know that sounds weird but bear with me for a moment. Mail (the service) has changed hardly at all for a decade. You send an…

I used to pay for Fastmail.fm as a mail service. It wasn't that cheap, but the top account which gave plenty of space and the ability to have my own domain wasn't expensive.

They kept the old versions of their web interface alive for many years after the active development of the 'default' moved on to different designs. Which was very helpful for me, as I much preferred their non-Javascript laden interface and kept the one I started with for many years of use.

I only moved on when I tripped their anti-spam/account hacked filter and didn't have my business e-mail for three days because the messages the interface gave me were misleading. Apart from that, I was very happy with them and they were very sensible about what they'd do with the interface.

As an aside, I think $12 a year is unrealistic for paid webmail as you'd need a good level of scale to make it pay for such a small amount. You're already talking about a service a small number of people want (interface staying the same and willing to pay for it) I'd expect you'd find the same people would be willing to pay enough to make the service worth running.

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#248

Post by radnor »

geuis wrote: post #229
darklajid wrote: post #226

HN: Is this a feature or a bug? My live id is a Gmail address. Went to Outlook.com, wanted to register but the form said 'login if you have a live id'. Did that, ended up on a very ugly hotmail-kind-of site. Hrmpf. Went back to Outlook.com, but logged in now: The web interface lets me compose and send mails as me@gmail?

Confirmed. My Live account that I use for xbox live is my gmail account. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to login to outlook.com with my gmail address. However I am concerned about the ability to send email from outlook.com that is sent as the name of another provider.

Try sending yourself an email. It will bounce back to that very same email address with a Delivery Status Notification from Hotmail's postmaster saying it couldn't be delivered.

Re: Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes

#249

Post by dguido »

People that use Outlook also tend to have more... valuable conversations in their inbox and demand more in terms of security and privacy from their mail providers. I hope that as part of courting this group of users to outlook.com, Microsoft has invested in things like S/MIME, PGP, 2FA, and other security enhancements. I haven't signed up, but can someone who has give an outline of what security features they are advertising?
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